The clash of corps in the Galician campaign I .

When the wheels of war were moving forward in an irreversible situation, it was clear to all that Austria-Hungary would be the first belligerent to bear the brunt. Endless espionage cases and political scandals, various problems caused by insufficient military spending in the army, and *** that will intensify at any time all indicate the demise of this old empire. Konrad von Herzendorf, then Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, wrote in a letter to **:

"War is coming, and it is difficult for the Empire to survive in this war; Serbia with ** will be her coffin nail. But I'm still going to fight until the last minute. Because such an ancient monarchy and such an ancient army cannot die in disgrace. ”

No matter how loud the bell rang, Conrad, who had never heard the sound of gunfire, was determined to "keep his ears open". For this war, he has listed 25 war plans against Russia in the past, and now is the best moment to prove the fruits of his diligence.

Probably influenced by the "preventive war" thinking of the Chief of the General Staff, Conrad, Austria-Hungary knew little about the military intelligence of the first **, especially the rapid development of the Imperial Russian Army in the second decade of the 20th century, and preferred to focus on the military power of Italy and Serbia. The consequence of this selective neglect was a miscalculation of the speed of the Russian army's mobilization, and Conrad still decided to use the relatively weak Austro-Hungarian Army to take the initiative to attack the large but not yet fully assembled ** Army.

This miscalculation, coupled with a letter from Moltke Jr., Chief of the German General Staff, to Conrad in 1909 promised: "I will not hesitate to assist the Austrian offensive by attacking, and you may count on this well-thought-out assurance."Moltke Jr.'s "offensive" refers to some degree of assistance from the German 8th Army, and Moltke Jr. also assured that a powerful German offensive would be launched on the Eastern Front in a "reasonable time" as long as France was quickly eliminated. As for the specific time, in the staff conversation in May 1914, the German chief of the General Staff gave a vague answer: "It will take about six weeks to turn the spearhead of the attack to **" and at the same time added: "I can only act to the best of my ability, and our German army is not stronger than the French." ”

In any case, Conrad chose to trust the German allies and launched a "northern offensive" against **. Austria's war plan mainly includes the "Fall R" for the main attack, the "Fall B" for the main attack on Serbia and Montenegro, and the "R+B plan" for the simultaneous operation of the three countries. Based on these three schemes, Conrad divided the 48 Austro-Hungarian infantry divisions into three groups: Staffel A, Staffel B, and Minimalgruppe Balkan.

The first was the A echelon, which was sent to Galicia to deal with **, with a strength of 9 corps, forming the 1st, 3rd and 4th armies. It was followed by the smallest Balkan cluster, with only 4 corps, which made up the 5th and 6th armies and sent them to Serbia, which were Potiorek's men. The above two groups, no matter which set of combat plans are adopted, will not change. The only thing to change is the four armies of the B echelon, that is, the 2nd Army, which acts as a "general reserve", which is equivalent to 4 in Russia's "Timetable No. 19".

Therefore, how to use the 2nd Army became the top priority in the Austrian war mobilization, but unfortunately, Conrad screwed upOn July 31, 1914 - the day of the general mobilization of the Russian army, Conrad ordered the B Echelon to be transported to Serbia, as if ignoring the threat of **, and then immediately changed his mind and decided to let the B Echelon go to Galicia, but the actual operation was not until August 18 - after a brief exchange of fire with the Serbian army - the 2nd Army officially boarded the platform and rushed to Gasilia. Whether Conrad's negligence was due to the "technical problems" of Austro-Hungarian railway transportation, or whether he was responsible for his own "preventive war mentality" to retaliate against Serbia, will not be discussed in this article.

What is certain is that the 2nd Army will not be able to participate in the "northern offensive", and the vanguard of the division, the 7th Army, which was the first to engage Serbia, will not engage in battle with the ** until August 30, when they will face the furious offensive of Brusinov.

But Conrad did do one thing right, he did not deploy Echelon A on the Russian-Austrian border to get the best offensive position, but chose to let the troops get off the train at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, and then ordered the 1st and 4th Armies to go straight north to attack**, during which the soldiers had to rush to the border on foot and then attack, which seemed very stupid. However, a notice sent by the Russian army base camp (st**ka) to the command of the Southwestern Front on August 22 fully explained the intentions and benefits of Conrad's move, in which the high command said: "...In this case, our line of attack....It will not be possible to cope with this situation. "This situation" refers to the following diagram:

Figure: The dotted circle is the Austro-Hungarian deployment in the Russian military intelligence, the solid circle is the actual deployment of Austria-Hungary in 1914, and the arrow is the encirclement plan of the Russian army.

If there is a simple summary of the changes in the war planning of the Russian Empire in the 20th century, it is"From conservative to radical".

"Conservatism" was forced to adopt a defensive posture against Germany and Austria on the "Western Front" in order to accelerate the erosion of Qing Manchuria; "Radical" means that after the complete loss of Manchuria after 1905, it is safe to focus on the "Western Front". In 1914, the Army was able to launch simultaneous attacks on Germany and Austria on the basis of the "Great Army Project" and the railroad tracks financed by France, a mobilization and assembly plan known as "Timetable No. 19".

The plan was drawn up in 1910 and revised again in the spring of 1912. "Schedule No. 19" is divided into two sub-plans: "19a (*strija)" and "19g (germanija)", the main difference is the deployment of the 4th Army (hereinafter referred to as "** Army"): if the "19g" plan is adopted, the 4 will be allocated to the Northwest Front for the attack on German East Prussia; If the "19a" plan is implemented, then the army group will be handed over to the Southwestern Front to deal with Austrian Silesia. 4 was chosen as a variable because it was formed in the Kazan Military District, which is the farthest from the front line.

Timetable No. 19 "The disposition of the other armies was as follows: For the North-Western Front, which, by Franco-Russian agreement, had to launch an offensive against East Prussia on the 16th mobilization day For the South-Western Front, under "19g" they were to assume the task of defending and delaying the Austrian offensive; Under "19a" they were to carry out a centripetal offensive against Lviv together with the 4, and the two flanks were to encircle the main Austro-Hungarian forces deployed on the border. Another 6 were responsible for the defense of the capital St. Petersburg, 7 for the defense of Romania. In 1913, the Southwestern Front was given command of 8.

Due to the geographical advantages of the Russian Polish salient and the Russian-Austrian border, it was obviously easier to encircle and annihilate the Austrian army than the German army, and the large plain of Galicia was obviously more suitable for the maneuver of the huge Russian army than the swamps and woods of Lake Masuri in East Prussia, so the chief of the General Staff chose the key plan "19a".

Mobilization of the Russian army up to August 1914 The four armies were deployed on the border line from west to east, from Lublin in the direction of due north to Khmelnitsky in the west in a semi-arc. This deployment was based on Alfred, a well-known spy and former chief of staff of the Austro-Hungarian 8th Army. The intelligence provided to the Russian side by Raeder, the Austro-Hungarian War plan leaked by Colonel Raeder, was extremely valuable in 1913. But since Raeder himself was arrested that year, the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, under Conrad, had already changed the deployment plan for the 1914 year, and the base camp of the Russian army apparently knew nothing about this at the mobilization stage.

The reason why the Russian army wants to take the initiative to attack is not groundless. Because strategically,The Russian Polish region is an extremely dangerous area. Once Germany and Austria attack ** at the same time, then the two flanks of the Russian army will not be guaranteed. It is likely that the main army will be cut off from the rear by the enemy, and the group will be besieged in this salient.

Although Russian Poland developed significantly after the Industrial Revolution, Warsaw became an important metallurgical center, with a population of 870,000 in 1910, surpassing Kiev and becoming the third largest city in the empire. Lodz became an important centre of gravity for the textile industry, bringing a steady stream of cloth to the East, and even Polish historians called it "the Manchester of Poland". But this area cannot provide food and ammunition for the Russian army. Poor agricultural management and radical reform of the serfdom system have made the agricultural problem worse. Even in the area north of Polesye, the inhabitants did not have enough food for themselves, which made the Russian army have to rely on supplies from the rear for food supplies. It is not difficult to see that after the outbreak of the war, the ** railway will naturally be overwhelmed by the transportation of manpower and ** equipment, and a long-term war of attrition may even make the Russian army face the problem of food shortage.

Pictured: During the 1915 Gorlice-Tarnow Breakthrough, the Russian army was wiped out by the poor strategic location of the Polish salient.

At the same time, ** because of the military reform, a large number of fortified areas in the rear were abolished, and some fortifications were even dismantled. However, by the time of the Great War, many of the fortifications that had been planned to be strengthened had not been completed. And because the Russian army base camp decided to move the front back in 1910, the supply depots in the border areas had almost no decent reserves, only the military supplies needed during the mobilization period, and more supply depots were in distant Borogeye, Smolensk, and Kiev. All in all, the defense system in the rear is incomplete.

In contrast, this problem did not exist in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The East Prussian region was agriculturally developed and was able to provide sufficient food for the German army on the Eastern Front. The region of Galicia was the largest grain province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with 33 large granaries for the army. In order to maintain agricultural production in Galicia, Austria-Hungary even prevented investors from investing in the region. This makes the region almost the poorest place in Europe, with fewer than 60,000 of the 7.3 million people working in commerce and industry. Meantime. Both countries have built a large number of supply depots and fortifications in their respective regions.

In order to avoid falling into a dilemma, the embarrassing situation of fighting on two fronts, escaping the tragic fate of running out of ammunition and food, and being encircled, the Russian army must choose to attack and plunder military supplies as much as possible from the occupied areas, so as to relieve the huge pressure on logistics. And the best breakthrough is to put the main force on the Galician plain. Not only did they have the food they needed, but they also had the weak and bully Austro-Hungarian army, which had a huge chance of victory in this region with the strength of the Russian army. But in order to defend the country's most important front, the Austro-Hungarian army will not sit still, and they choose to use their more advantageous railway lines and preemptive opportunities to attack the Russian army. And so the Battle of Galicia unfolded against this background!

In order to get the upper hand, Conrad decided to have his 10 cavalry divisions cross the border to conduct reconnaissance. In fact, in the First World War, the use of cavalry units to spy on the movements of the other side was outdated. Because both ** and Germany have created their own air forces and have a sizable number of aircraft for reconnaissance work. The speed and reconnaissance efficiency of the aircraft far surpassed that of the cavalry units, and they were practically invulnerable to losses.

Pictured: A Lufthansa Brandenburg biplane bomber manufactured at an Austro-Hungarian factory.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had only 5 aircraft in Berengue, of which 3 were in repair and only 2 were serviceable. By August 12, only one aircraft was left to use, and more than ten days of reconnaissance only obtained information on the build-up of the **8th Army. Of course, this was not the fault of Conrad himself, as early as a few years ago he had put forward to parliament the need to strengthen the construction of the Air Force, but no one listened to him.

On the morning of August 21, the Austro-Hungarian 4th Cavalry Division encountered the 3rd Cavalry Division under the **9th Army at Brody. Taking advantage of the defenselessness of the other side, the Austro-Hungarian army, with the 1st Lancer Regiment as the vanguard, rushed into the village ** Russian cavalry. After a short exchange, the Russian army withdrew from the village. But the 10th Cavalry Division, which was soon resting not far away, sent 18 cavalry squadrons to support the 9th Cavalry Division, and also brought 8 field guns and several machine guns. The Austro-Hungarian army's support was dwarfed, and their infantry had marched 32 kilometers in a row in the sweltering heat, and the soldiers were exhausted.

Pictured: The Austro-Hungarian infantry resting on the side of the road, in the sweltering heat of August, their fighting spirit can be exhausted by a long march.

The Austro-Hungarian commander had hoped that his two infantry battalions would arrive at the battlefield, and hoped that friendly 11th and 8th Infantry Divisions would come to their aid. But when he heard a loud noise in the direction of the Russian army (in fact, the Russian army blew up the railway), he mistook it for the sound of Russian artillery, so he launched a new attack without waiting for the support troops.

With no infantry, he had to use his cavalry to launch a traditional assault on the enemy, while the Russian units had artillery. When the Austro-Hungarian cavalry tried to capture the Russian artillery positions, the Russians blew up the bridges on the road they had to pass. This forced them to brave artillery fire and fight the Russian cavalry. After the first round of engagement, the Austro-Hungarian infantry finally arrived on the battlefield, only to accidentally run into the Russian cavalry and suffer heavy losses.

In the evening, Russian reinforcements arrived, and the Austro-Hungarian army fully retreated. The Russians won the battle with 200 losses and wounded 1,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers. The battle was the largest cavalry battle on the Eastern Front, and it is worth mentioning that the son of the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, Conrad, also took part in this battle as a cavalryman. Although the Austro-Hungarian cavalry was well armed, their infantry was very poor in terms of training and will to fight. In the face of a large number of Russian troops, they also have no chance of victory. The inexperience of the Austro-Hungarian commanders and the lack of coordination of the troops were vividly exposed in this battle.

Regardless of Conrad's misdeployment, the Austro-Hungarian army will always be mobilized faster than the Russian army. Because the cavalry units of the Russian army need at least 4 days to mobilize, the infantry divisions on the border need 5 to 8 days, and the main body of the Russian troops, those in the distant military districts, and the huge number of second-line infantry divisions need at least 10 to 28 days to mobilize, until August 15, the Russian army has completed one-third of the mobilization, and Austria-Hungary has basically completed the mobilization.

On 20 August, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, under the command of General Dankel, advanced northeast of the San region, intending to cross the Tanev Forest and create favorable conditions for a future offensive. The army group, which had 9 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry divisions, was to spearhead the attack north on Lublin as the closest to the ** border, with the ultimate goal of advancing into central Poland in conjunction with the 4th Army.

Pictured: Cavalry General Victor Dankel, a graduate of the Theresia Military Academy, served for several years as the head of the ** Office of the General Staff before becoming the commander of the 14th Army. After mobilization for the war, he was appointed commander of the 1st Army by Conrad.

If the original plan of the Russian army is followed, then the Austro-Hungarian army will not be hindered much, because the time of the Russian offensive is scheduled for the beginning of September. However, due to the crushing defeat of the French ** team in the border battle, they sent a new distress telegram to **, hoping that the Russian army would not only attack Germany with the Northwest Front, but also that the Southwestern Front would also attack, so as to contain the entire Allied bloc. Therefore, on August 14, the Russian base camp made a decisive decision and demanded that the commander of the Southwestern Front, General Ivanov, immediately launch an attack on the Austro-Hungarian army without completing the assembly.

The opponent of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was Anton von Salza's 4th Army, which was the weakest of the Southwestern Front. He had only six and a half infantry divisions and three and a half cavalry divisions, and to make matters worse, this force was from Kazan, and a large number of soldiers and baggage had not yet arrived. The commander of the Front, General Ivanov, did not intend to let him leave his staging area near Lublin, but the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Grand Duke Nikolai, believed that the main forces of the Austrian army would advance to the east rather than to the north, and he did not want the 4th Army to confront any strong enemy. He then ordered the 4th Army to cross the San River to the west of Przemyśl, where he could cut off any Austrian retreat west through the Krakow corridor and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

Pictured: Anton von Salza, a Baltic German nobleman who served as director of the Kazan Military School and whose troops also came from the Kazan Military District, was 71 years old when the war broke out.

On 22 August, the 4th Army reached the line of the Viznica River, but General Salza's unit was almost an empty shelf, and at least half of its personnel were still on the train to Poland.

In the afternoon of the same day, Grand Duke Nikolai realized that the Austro-Hungarian army was not attacking as planned, and immediately alerted the command of the Southwestern Front:

Our plan was relying on outdated intelligence, the base camp wanted Commander Ivanov to revise the battle plan, and the careful deployment of the Austrian army made it "a hundred kilometers to the west and southwest" of the assembly area expected by the Russians, which meant that the westernmost 4th Army was in danger of being outflanked by the Austrians.

Grand Duke Nikolai, the base camp of the Russian army.

The next morning, the Russian 14th Army advanced to the Tanev River and encountered the 1st Army under the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army. Although the ** people temporarily had an advantage in numbers, the Austro-Hungarian ** team was stationed on the high ground at the edge of the dense forest and easily repelled the attack of the ** people. As the offensive weakened, the Austro-Hungarian army began to boldly counterattack. In the afternoon, the battle was carried out by the Russians, the original positions were captured by the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army, and to add insult to injury, the Austro-Hungarian 10th Army also came to reinforce it.

Over time, the Austro-Hungarian army outnumbered the Russian army for a time. Later in the afternoon, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was involved in the battle, and the **14th Army was repulsed, almost losing the ability to continue the battle. In order to reinforce the 14th Army, Salza had to draw one brigade each from the Grenadier Corps (Elite Corps) and the 16th Corps. However, the commander of the Front, General Ivanov, was unimpressed by General Salza's warnings and insisted that the 16th Army and the Grenadier Corps continue south.

By 24 August, the situation of the 4th Army was becoming more and more precarious. Because the opponent began to gather superior forces to outflank it, trying to eat the isolated 14th Army, and the troops moving south were stubbornly resisted by the Austro-Hungarian army. The Russians had a chance to win, but the Austro-Hungarian 9th Cavalry Division rushed to the battlefield and began to attack and divide the Russians from the flanks. In the evening, the Austro-Hungarian army began a full-scale counterattack, and the Russian army had to choose to retreat.

The Battle of Krašnik, which lasted two days, ended with a complete victory for the Austro-Hungarian army, ending in 1At the cost of 50,000 people, nearly 20,000 Russian troops were killed and wounded, 6,000 Russian troops were captured, and 28 artillery pieces were captured. Dankel was very pleased with the performance of his army and asked to continue doing so in the coming days. But due to the long march, his troops were also exhausted and had to rest. After this battle, he was regarded as a role model of hero, and in 1917 he was awarded the Maria Theresa Cross, as well as the title of Count Krašnik.

The impact of the Battle of Krašnik on the Russian army was a political struggle, since a large number of units of the Fourth Army had not yet arrived on the battlefield. And before the war, the officers, headed by Grand Duke Nikolai, formed an anti-Sukhomlinov group. They vowed to eradicate the corrupt, flamboyant, treacherous and cunning Minister of War Sukhomlinov. It was because of his meddling that the post of commander of the Southwestern Front was handed over to the honest and mentally fragile General Ivanov. In many key positions, this impudent man was also stumbling on Grand Duke Nicholas and trying to hinder his military command.

Photo: Nikolai Idovich Ivanov, in the 1915 operation, he was the first person responsible for the rout of the Russian Western Front, and repeatedly demonstrated the poor leadership and indecision of the troops, which directly led to the total annihilation of the Third Army.

Therefore, in order to be able to really control the Southwestern Front, the Nikolai Public Security inserted the shrewd and capable Alekseev as the chief of staff of the Southwestern Front. Whenever Ivanov and Grand Duke Nikolai disagreed, Alekseev had already sent orders according to the plan of Grand Duke Nikolai. Coupled with the fact that the official level crushed people to death, Ivanov could only eat Coptis dumbly, and did not dare to touch the thorn in Alekseev's side. And these two people are also incompatible in character, Alekseev hated Ivanov's lack of initiative, holding a large number of troops but no offensive enthusiasm, in many reports, he criticized Ivanov mercilessly.

Pictured: Vladimir Sukhomlinov, when the war broke out, he directly assured the Tsar, saying that the Russian army was fully ready to march on Berlin and Vienna at any time, and thus contribute to the outbreak of World War I. However, this villain deposited a large amount of the reformed deposits in the Deutsche Bank, and was eventually imprisoned in 1916 on charges of espionage.

After the battle, the commander of the 14th Army was accused of cowardice by the commander of the 16th Army, but in fact the commander of the 14th Army was a close confidant of Sukhomlinov, and Grand Duke Nikolai did not hesitate to remove him from his post. In revenge for Grand Duke Nikolai, Ivanov relieved the commander of the 16th Army. These frivolous struggles made the commander of the 4th Army, General Salza, even more angry, and he wrote directly to denounce Ivanov for ignoring his warnings, which led to heavy losses in the battle of 24 August for the Grenadier Corps and the 16th Army. Annoyed and angry, Ivanov dismissed General Salza again, which played into the hands of Grand Duke Nikolai, and he immediately sent Alexei Eft, the artillery general of the group, to take over as commander of the 4th Army, and took advantage of this opportunity to recruit General Salza to join the anti-Sukhomlinov group.

Now that the Southwestern Front is fully under the command of Grand Duke Nikolai, Ivanov has become a puppet without real power, and the counterattack of the Russian army is about to begin. And whether Conrad can turn the tide, please watch the next episode.